Is this London's Weirdest Station? | Exploring Birkbeck

[Music] when I say train station what's the first station in London that you think of is it perhaps the new station BR cross Quest perhaps it's a small station such as Emerson Park or maybe it could be a big London Terminus such as Houston or Paddington well in today's video I'll be looking at London's weirdest Station Burke Beck but firstly we have to get there currently I'm on a southern class 377 these are the main voting stock of Southern's Network however in the past the class 455s used to operate on this line I reviewed these trains before in the past so be sure to check out that video you can find a link to it in the top right corner of this video right now here we are arriving into the station now let's step out and explore how weird this station truly is [Music] let's start from the bottom then this station is located on Elmer's End Road meaning there isn't much space for a proper station entrance a big Double Arrow sign is the only indication of a station here you can also find some updated time tables posted however most of these are not updated another thing about this station is that it's not very accessible despite being located in zone 4 to access the platform you have to walk all the way up these stairs now then let's look at the station facilities you'll find oyster validators and according to that sign you'll find a telephone at the bottom of the stairs despite me never seeing one there is also a map showing the entire GTR Network it's good for planning trips over large distances as I plan to go to Tel on the next train you can also find the regular features such as benches and map showing all stations you can travel to from the station there is also a single ticket machine which you can use to purchase tickets or top of your oyster card this machine takes both cash and card now then why is this London's weirdest station well if you look over here there are two types of tracks one track is for the national rail line which uses third rail and the other track on the other side of the fence is an overhead powered tram track the use of two different forms of Transport makes the station very unique as the only one like it in London the two platforms parallel each other so that when a train and Tra arrive at the same time you can see the major height difference between them between here and Beckham Junction the lines parallel each other however burbeck is the only station where they both stop at here you can see the difference between the tram and National Rail platforms the tram platform is much shorter and lower down the tram platform also has direct access to the local Cemetery now then let's talk about the history of the station bureck first opened in 1958 as part of the Southern Railway in 1983 the station was reduced a single platform operations and in 2000 tram Services finally started calling here when planning for tra lck Services tfl proposed for a service from Crystal Palace to Beckham Junction however the existing National Rail Services were deemed adequate and the plan did not go ahead while this is London's weirdest station it's also one of the least used as in 2023 this station saw a grand total of 71,000 244 passengers entering and exit the station here you can see some T4 Engineers repaving the TR platform anyways my time here at the station is up the same train from the beginning now arriv to take me up to TOS Hill [Music] well that was my take on what could be London's weirdest station if you think any other station is weirder than this then be sure to let me know in the comments down below if you like what you saw today then be sure to subscribe and if you want to feel free to join my Discord server a link can be found in the description down below I'm leaving since I have exams soon this will probably be my last video for a long time however in the summer I plan to film and upload much more videos plus I have some very interesting videos plann for the future with that all said thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video goodbye

Channel: Mr Trainz

Views: 12,155

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Id: nQOrZxd3Tc0

Length: 5min 44sec (344 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024